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Society

City Personals
Mary Clay Brooks

Congratulations, Lady Patriots, for a great season

The varsity Lady Patriots of Marshall Academy finished up their basketball season Friday. The girls were in Brookhaven for a week, battling it out to get a top position to roll into last week at Mississippi College for the Overall State Tournament.

Wednesday, the girls had a hard-fought battle against long time rival, Magnolia Heights. They were primed and ready to win that game. Callie Clanton got off a last second shot, which went in tipping the scales in their favor by 2. Little did anyone back home know that Callie actually had the flu! What drive and determination it took for her to play and help her team to pull out a victory!

The senior leadership of Regan Murphy, Traci Rodgers and Molly West was very apparent throughout the basketball season and especially during the tournaments. They helped their team rise to the occasion and forge ahead. Other team members included Emily Burk, Lauralee Fant, Kelsey Shaw, Callie Clanton, Megan Isabell, Emma Elgin, Chelsey Gilliam, Lane Cunningham and Brittney Deese.

These girls had a tremendous season. I know the seniors will be missed, but they have a great group of younger girls ready to take on the challenge of filling their shoes! Congratulations once again to the Lady Patriots!

(To put your news in City Personals, please e-mail maryclayb@yahoo.com; mail to City Personals, The South Reporter, P.O. Box 278, Holly Springs, MS 38635 or call 662-252-4261. You may also e-mail your City Personal news to south@dixie-net.com).

Museuming
Lois Swanee Shipp
Museum Curator

Trees are an asset to our town

Holly Springs is full of beautiful trees. Remember when the streets were lined with majestic trees to give us shade and solace from the heat? Trees are very decorative and we took them for granted and thought they would be here forever. Trees are like people: they grow, produce fruit, get sick and die! We, the citizens, who love Holly Springs, should work at keeping it beautiful. In the wintertime our town needs a touch of color so we need to plant evergreens.

It would be nice if everybody would plant a holly tree to honor Holly Springs and themselves as their contribution to the beauty of this place. A memorial tree for a friend or relative who loved beauty would be a living memorial. If you prefer a big, gorgeous magnolia tree with its waxen leaves and with big plate blossoms that shine from May until October, what would be more lasting and meaningful?

Mississippi only has one species of cedar tree, but the cedars that line the walk at Wakefield and Norfleet-Rand House and others around town were brought as seed in the pockets of the early settlers.

The beautiful native cedar is the one that we go to the pasture and cut for our Christmas trees. Do you remember that sweet and wonderful aroma from that freshly cut tree and how Christmassy they are? No other tree compares with it. Sometime we see cedars in the field that are scrubby and tacky but the reason is that they are in such poor soil and have never had any enrichment.

King Solomon in the Bible built his temple out of cedars from Lebanon and in that day chariots were made of cedar wood. Indians used cedar for bows and arrows. Also the Indians thought the cedar tree was sacred and used it to build litters for carrying their dead. Cedar was always used for fence posts. Pioneer settlers planted cedar trees by the front doors for good luck. Cedar is great in the house as the smell repels wicked moths and insects.

Trees are good for us as they clean the air, protect the land, conserve energy, increase property values, and trees also make homes for wildlife.

Trees are fascinating. Early settlers planted the “osage orange” tree as a living fence around their property lines. It is also called the bodoc tree and is interesting and it’s all around town. Sometimes we call it the “horse apple” tree, as its fruit is a green ball bigger than a softball that, if brought into the house will rid your house of roaches. The tree has two-or three-inch long, strong thorns and people planted the trees close together to use as a fence and the animals respected those thorns. There was a beautiful line of them on the west end of Peyton Road that was like a canopy over the top of the road, but it’s been cut down now.

The bodoc used to be planted around “The Meadows” off the west end of College Avenue as a fence for the pasture and a lot of them are still there. The bodoc tree came from France and there it is called the bois-d’arc for osage orange. The Indians used it to make bows for hunting and fishing. One of the largest bodoc trees in the state is on East Van Dorn on the south side between Chesterman Street and the Catholic Church. The bodoc often grows crookedly and is not resistant. There is a huge one in the Mike Lynn Park that grows sideways and you can walk up the trunk with no hands. If you burn them in the fireplace, they project an intense heat. Long ago it was the most popular wood for wagon wheels, rims and hubs. It’s as hard as concrete and when freshly cut is a bright orange color.

General H.E. Williamson, one of the Holly Springs generals, was also mayor of the town and the progenitor of the Seale family. He was born in “The Hermitage” when his parents were visiting Andrew Jackson and Rachel. It is said he planted the Linden trees after ordering them from Germany. They used to line the street in front of the school on Walthall and also in front of Linden Terrace on College Avenue where Williamson lived. They are all over town as the Lord made the seeds with wings like a parachute.

Also ordered from China in the 1840s were the mulberry trees that we have all over town. The town was trying to have a silk industry here and along with the mulberry tree came the silk worm. The industry didn’t work but we still have many delicious mulberries from the trees that are here now. A tree salesman came to town in the 1890s selling the Paloma tree, which also came from China. The trees were very ornamental, having huge clusters of purple flowers in the spring. Paloma trees came from the queen’s garden and are also known as the “Empress” tree.

One of the largest cypress trees in the state is here in the Lynn garden. The state forester said it is 300 to 400 years old and the Indians probably used it for shade and shelter. It’s one of my favorite trees and in the winter, it’s bare and tall and majestic.

In the cemetery is a beautiful evergreen yew tree. It is used as Rev. Joseph Holt Ingraham’s tombstone and was ordered from England for that purpose. Mississippi is too hot a climate for this tree, but it has survived because its roots are close to the underground river. At Christmas, this is a favorite of decorators because of its great dark evergreen beauty. In England, yew trees grow huge like our oaks. The wood is good for carving as it’s so hard it has a heavy grain like oak does.

In the courthouse yard at the south side of the courthouse, there used to be a beautiful buckeye tree. Actually it is the Ohio State tree and I always wondered where it came from and who gave it. In the springtime, that tree had huge clumps of purple flowers on it, which turned into poisonous buckeyes later. In the front yard of the courthouse today are two new persimmon trees that are so pretty and the fruit is so delicious to eat. In the west courthouse yard is also a huge daidora evergreen that would be fun to climb if it weren’t against the law.

The cemetery land is lined with fantastic crepe myrtles planted by the Town and Country Garden Club which are gorgeous every season.

Our trees are really an asset to our town and we need to perpetuate them. In a person’s lifetime, everyone should have a child, write a book, paint a picture, run for political office and plant a tree. Trees need to be planted in November or in the spring, so do your part and let’s paint the town green. Green is my favorite color and it’s also the color of that green stuff - money. Lets “pine” to paint our town green and “spruce” up the town. That’s the “poplar” thing to do as it’ll draw the whole world to see this jewel of a town.

Good News Happy Hour with the Holly Belles and Lois Swanee Shipp

Folks, thank you for watching our new TV-98 show this Thursday night. We are ladies who have been through the mill but, as yet, we aren’t over the hill. Our ages cover a span of 50 years. Some of us are cancer survivors and survivors of the vicissitudes of life. We are all full of courage, we all have a positive attitude and we are all full of Christian faith that keeps us ticking and makes life a joy. Our show is to share with you some of the things that make life good, wonderful and how to make it better.

No. 1 -- Lisa Cole has been on the mountaintop as Miss Tennessee. She was in the Miss USA Pageant and that was an unforgettable experience. Last August she went to the Republican Convention and was rushed by everyone as they thought she was Sara Palin. She will tell us today and each week, a tall tale.

No. 2 -- Lisa Liddy is a cancer survivor and an example to us all in how to overcome great life- threatening obstacles. She never complains but is an example of courage and fortitude. She will give us the weather and a health tip each week.

No. 3 -- Lisa Childers is a mother and grandmother who has an entrepreneurial spirit and she can show us how to move mountains.

No. 4 -- Joan Fitch is the best cook in the county, maybe the state, and she is amazing in the community miracles she performs each day. She is currently writing a cookbook to tell you how to do it as well as she does.

No. 5 -- Lois Swaney-Shipp, I am the curator of the Marshall County Historical Museum, who sponsors this show in which we are trying to pass on some of the greatness of our community.

We are all self-appointed ambassadors of our town and county. We have chosen to live here by recognizing the attributes of this place. We invite all of you to come visit us at the Marshall County Historical Museum. The museum is the best thing going for Holly Springs and Marshall County. We are open six days a week. If anyone wishes to make a community announcement on air about an upcoming event please call 662-252-3669 to give us the details. Come see us at 111 Van Dorn Ave., here in Holly Springs. There is a $2 fee at the door.

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